kenneth Wamuga

I did not comment on this topic earlier because I have not been close to farmers and traders of sweetpotato particularly OFSP. My area is post harvest utilization, however, after following comments so far, I thought it may not be out of place to provide the little information I have based on the Rainbow Project in Nigeria which has ended.
As…[Read more]

I am a late entrant to this and indeed out of the scheduled time, but I thought to add my 50 cents. Robert is right that consumer demand for quality produce could drive changes in the way farmers, rural assemblers (aggregators) and market traders handle the sweetpotato roots. However, Robert is looking at quality in terms of nutritional content. I…[Read more]

Thank you all for sharing your experience. I would like to share my experience to improve the quality of the roots, hence increased customer satisfaction.
We all know that sweetpotato is a highly perishable root, implying that it can only be stored for a short period of time before it starts deteriorating unless appropriate measures are taken.…[Read more]

Appreciation to:
Roland from SUSTAIN project in Mozambique; Tawanda, the Food Scientist & Nutritionist from CIP; Francis, Food Scientist & Nutritionist from Ghana; Jean, Food Processor from a private industry in Malawi;………..for your participation and contributions, without which this forum would not have been active.
To our Co-Leaders,…[Read more]

Dear Tawanda, I was just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of my report when your contribution came in. It came in handy. I appreciate you for the post and its content because its more like a global view considering it was an outcome of a conference with a status such as that of APA. I believe we will overcome the challenges with time and get…[Read more]

Dear Francis, I felt the knock you gave me by not granting my request (joke). It’s fine and I had gone ahead to prepare the report based on the contributions.

Dear Colleagues

Its good to hear from Ganiyat. I am excited about the just ended SPHI meeting in Addis Ababa. Lets congratulate Dr Francis Kweku Amagloh for becoming a member of the Africa Potato Association (APA) council. Lets hope APA, will come to Ghana after Rwanda.

I am a believer in OFSP puree bread. We have a high quality product that…[Read more]

Thanks, Francis and Sarah for these interesting insights. We also need to consider the demand angle, and I think that is where we can focus some of our efforts in completing this puzzle. As more and more consumers become aware of the possible benefits of OFSP and demand goes up, aggregators and farmers alike will drift towards the crop naturally.…[Read more]

Dear Ganiyat,

Good to hear from you again, and to know you are doing well.

We are on the next discussion, so just summarise what you moderated. We are ok with the discussion.

Rgds,
Francis

My responses to your issues you raised:

-how did you approach the aggregators?

We met the aggregators at the urban market (Agbogbloshie) where we explained to them what we want to do and needed their support. They agreed to work with us after a little resistance.

– what has been the nature of your collaboration?

The sweetpotato business in…[Read more]

Dear participants, I am sorry I couldn’t continue with the moderation since my last post. I was faced with a terrible life challenge which need not be made public.

This discussion is supposed to have ended by 30th September and I am supposed to have submitted my report by now (mid October).

I am aware that the 3rd discussion topic have been…[Read more]

Dear Francis,
Thanks a lot for getting us started. You raise a very important point – working with aggregators to build stronger and more reliable sweetpotato value chains. I too have had some experience in working with aggregators in the Lake Zone, Tanzania and I must say that I totally agree with you. In our case, we had a sensitization…[Read more]

I had an experience in Ghana, I would like to share.

I have been working with sweetpotato aggregators for 2 years now. All they transport is the white- and yellow-fleshed sweetpotato roots because that is what food vendors preferred to fry. I enquire from farmers why they are not growing OFSP, and I was told that the aggregators won’t buy it.…[Read more]

Thank you all for the contributions so far. Obviously this is a very interesting topic, but beyond this, from the contributions to date, I see prospects for bread making from OFSP Puree. The journey to success (commercial uptake by bakers due to profit advantage and big time consumer demand due to health benefits) may seem far, and the pace slow…[Read more]

Good to hear another positive result of OFSP puree and bread. Can we also consider it by using when in season, at least for now?

Jean, how do you use the frozen puree? From the thawing to the mixing. I am yet to try this out, but it looks like that is the way to go.

How long can you keep it frozen?

In Malawi, we have done quite a number of trials with OFSP Puree and the results have been very positive in bread with one two bakeries so far. with one bakery, we have gone as far commercializing the bread as we provide the puree. However, I agree with the challenges given in the introduction of this topic – lack of proper storage facilities and…[Read more]